Updated 2/23

I enjoyed this excerpt so much from Roger Phillips’s column in the Idaho Statesman, I thought I’d just copy and present it verbatim:

ANOTHER ROUND OF FOREST SERVICE PLANNING

If a tree falls in the forest to provide paper for a forest plan, is there a sound other than bureaucratic gibberish?

Here’s an excerpt from a recent news release from the Forest Service, which was thankfully e-mailed and thus spared some poor tree’s life. For now, anyway.

“The proposed planning rule provides a collaborative and science-based framework for creating land management plans that would support ecological sustainability and contribute to rural job opportunities. The proposed rule includes new provisions to guide forest and watershed restoration and resilience, habitat protection, sustainable recreation, and management for multiple uses of the National Forest System, including timber.”

That excerpt from the release was followed by nine explanatory bullet points and two quotes by high-ranking Forest Service officials attempting to clarify the gobbledygook.

I am pretty sure what it really means — several years of babbling and arguing over forest management, reams of documents produced and little or no improvements on the ground.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/02/20/1535071/politics-can-put-the-wreck-in.html#ixzz1EoQ4oQp8